How did I get here?

Some people never imagined they would have the career they do, others envisage it from a young age and I definitely fall into the latter category…

My first memory of wanting to work in science was when my parents took my sisters and I to the National Space Centre as kids. At that point I was convinced I was going to be the next biggest astronaut – getting hired by NASA fresh out of school and travelling around outer space in my own rocket… Of course it isn’t as easy as that, and after studying science at school I quickly fell in love with biology and the idea of becoming a scientist. Now I think we can all agree that science is not a glamorous subject by all means, but it definitely is fascinating and my biology teacher at the time (shout out to Miss Williams!) inspired me to continue studying it.

Now most people seeking a career in scientific research will try and get accepted onto a PhD programme to get their doctorate and then start working in a lab after. But getting to the point of being accepted for a PhD is no mean feat. Not only are PhDs expensive, there are looaddss of talented scientists out there all competing for the same thing and it can be quite a bumby ride getting to this point. But, depsite all the pot-holes I’ve hit along the way, I am now in my first year of my PhD at the Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester – yay!

I was extremely lucky to be offered a fully-funded studentship to study here from Hope Against Cancer – a local charity whose donations fund research and clinical trials in Leicestershire and Rutland. My work looks at how the time of day of radiation treatment in breast cancer patients effects their development of side effects. At the moment I’m just two months in but starting to settle into the swing of things quite nicely.

Science has always been in the news but since social media has seemed to take off massively in the last decade or so, it is now accessible to everyone, which is great…! Except that along with it comes many misconceptions and misinformation which can be hugely frustrating to those in the field. So I aim to chat about some of the experiments I get to do, and to talk about what goes on in my day-to-day lab life from my point of view. Hopefully I can pass some of my knowledge onto others and give a small insight into the elusive world of research!